Tech Check is a regular column on restaurant technology by Senior Editor Joe Guszkowski. It's also a newsletter.
AI drive-thrus are having a moment.
In the past week, three big fast-food chains—Wendy’s and the twin brands Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr.—said they’ll start using AI voicebots to take drive-thru orders.
They join a growing list of QSRs that view the technology as a way to supercharge the all-important drive-thru with better accuracy and speed and lower labor costs.
But as the technology is thrust onto the industry’s front lines, it faces a big question: Is it ready?
AI voice has shown promise, albeit in limited scenarios. Hardee’s and Carl’s stores that tested the system from Presto AI saw a “significant rise” in revenue from automated upsells, according to CKE Restaurants CTO Phil Crawford, and the bots improved service and efficiency as well. The parent company is now making the system available to all 2,800 of its restaurants, most of which are franchised.
The 600-unit Del Taco also chose to go nationwide with the technology after franchisees and employees sang its praises.
McDonald’s, meanwhile, has downplayed its own tests of drive-thru AI, saying its accuracy wasn't up to snuff. The chain’s voicebots became a laughingstock on social media earlier this year.
Sister brands Checkers and Rally’s are probably the best use case we have to date. The chains began adding AI voicebots over a year ago, and as of September they were in about 200 of the chains’ 650 U.S. restaurants. Executives have said the system is 96% accurate, faster than human order takers and better at upselling.
And yet the brands did not exactly blow the doors off in 2022: Sales were up 2% at Checkers and 3% at the smaller Rally’s, according to data from Restaurant Business sister company Technomic.
It’s probably too early to draw any real conclusions. Even if AI is the second coming of the internet, as many believe it is, stepping into a job as complex as the drive-thru is not easy. Plus, the technology is designed to learn and improve over time, which is part of its appeal.
But restaurants may not have the luxury of long and deliberate rollouts. It’s no coincidence that many of the brands adopting AI voicebots are losing business and are now placing their hopes in AI to help—and fast.
In an unfortunate example of this phenomenon, on the same day Hardee’s/Carl’s made their AI announcement, news broke that the big Hardee’s franchisee Summit Restaurant Holdings had filed for bankruptcy after closing 39 locations. Falling traffic and rising costs were to blame.
The chain itself did not fare much better: Overall sales fell 4% at Hardee’s last year and 3% at Carl’s, according to Technomic.
And they’re not the only struggling brands betting on bots. Among the 21 fast-food burger chains on Technomic’s Top 500 ranking, at least eight are testing AI voicebots in their drive-thrus. Five of them—Rally’s, Krystal, Checkers, Carl’s and Hardee’s—had sales growth under 3% last year, per Technomic.
Meanwhile, you do not hear about many fast-growing chains like Culver’s or In-N-Out putting robots in their drive-thrus. Panera is one exception, as is the giant Wendy’s, where sales increased more than 5% last year. It is working with Google to test drive-thru bots in Columbus, Ohio, restaurants starting next month.
But whether you're thriving or not, these are big bets on largely unproven technology that, once implemented, could be costly to reverse.
My concern is not that the technology can’t or won’t work. I think it will, with the right strategy and investment behind it. But the rush to add AI out of desperation alone is a recipe for disaster.